London (VNA) – The first official-channel shipment of Vietnameselychee imported by the UK’s TT Meridian Ltd has arrived inthe UK.
Thai Tran, managing director of the company, said that itfirst imported early ripening lychee from Vietnam to compete with those fromMexico and China that are available in the UK market.
Notably, Vietnamese lychee is now packed with the image ofthe Vietnamese national flag on the package, which aims to promote Vietnamese brands andhelp consumers easily recognise Vietnamese products in supermarkets.
He informed that the whole process from harvesting the fruit at farms in Vietnam to selling it in the UK takes only 36 hours.
The demand for Vietnamese lychee in theUK is increasing thanks to its high quality and short season, cultural exchangeactivities, and trade promotion efforts, he said.
Trade Counselor in the UK Nguyen Canh Cuong saidthat a big challenge for Vietnamese lychee exports to the UK is the preservation of the product. As lychee must be consumed within three days after beingharvested to ensure freshness, exporters need to master post-harvest technology.
Vietnamese lychee is currently priced at 15 pounds (18.65 USD) per kilo in the UK, and Cuong said the high price is partly due to the fact that the fruit must be transported by air./.